


A Kiss is a Kiss

by bigolegay



Category: Mass Effect: Andromeda
Genre: Anthropology, First Kiss, Implied Sexual Content, M/M, Sexual Tension, Xenoanthropology, Xenophilia, idk my dumb nervous ryder kisses the big purple man
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-12
Updated: 2018-01-12
Packaged: 2019-03-03 22:39:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,799
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13350978
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bigolegay/pseuds/bigolegay
Summary: Courting an alien was always going to be weird. Back in the Milky Way, before the military and the no fraternisation rule, he had tried a few times. Once with a Salarian (it didn't work out; he was too fast, wanted more than Scott could give, and didn't want what he could  give) and once a Batarian (that also didn't work out, probably because the fling was more to get under his dad's skin than it was based on attraction). So yeah, Scott had an idea of how awkward inter-species relationships could be, but when the alien you were courting wasn't even from the same Galaxy as you were... well, then it became even more strange.(All pairings except Scott/Jaal are only ever mentioned and not expanded upon, they are not the main ship)





	A Kiss is a Kiss

**Author's Note:**

> Guess who didn't complete Andromeda the first time round because they were too sad they couldn't romance the big purple flower man in a way that didn't make them feel super uncomfortable? Me.

Courting an alien was always going to be weird. Back in the Milky Way, before the military and the no fraternisation rule, he had tried a few times. Once with a Salarian (it didn't work out; he was too fast, wanted more than Scott could give, and didn't want what he could give) and once a Batarian (that also didn't work out, probably because the fling was more to get under his dad's skin than it was based on attraction). So yeah, Scott had an idea of how awkward inter-species relationships could be, but when the alien you were courting wasn't even from the same _Galaxy_ as you were... well, then it became even more strange.

Jaal was one of the most beautiful creatures Scott Ryder had laid eyes on. It was a confusing thing to become enamoured with the way someone looked when the way they looked was so unlike anything you had seen before, and even more so when the thoughts were crowded with worries about fetishisation, colonialism, objectification, and just how badly he as the Pathfinder could screw up Initiative-Angaran relations with a simple crush. But even with the weight of the Initiative's future on his shoulders, Scott couldn't deny that he found Jaal extremely physically attractive. Oh and then there was the voice. That had been one of the problems with the others. Jolan, the Salarian's voice had been too high, too rushed. There was no time to enjoy it, to savour the subvocals, to melt in them, to feel them on his skin. And Dosvin, the Batarian, had lain something else on his skin entirely. But Jaal spoke in a pondering manner, slow, deep, often soft but sometimes hard and loud and excited, joyous, angry. Sounds of wonder oft tumbled from him as they explored the cluster, as he soaked in things he had only heard about and many things he had never heard about. They sounded like grunts and purrs and whilst at first they had startled Scott now they fanned a heat in his belly. And there was his laughter, too. Scott had been so happy to hear laughter from Andromeda, like humour and happiness were some universal constant even in the face of death and destruction and the fucking Kett.

At first Scott had sat on his attraction. It was the elephant in the room, obvious to anyone on the team with any idea of what a human with a crush looked like (which meant almost everyone). He distracted himself with little dalliances – Cain Fawkes on Prodromos was fun, bashful, easy to tease but gave as good as he got. Gil was fun to flirt with, but Scott couldn't see it going much further than playful banter and innuendo. Brecka was dry and witty and had an accent that turned Scott in circles. Reyes was... well Reyes was another beast entirely, maybe even a mistake. But soon, after all was revealed with the Charlatan, after Scott did some serious thinking about what he wanted _his_ future to look like, not just the future of every colonist, he realised he couldn't ignore what he was feeling any longer. 

Jaal had become his friend. They were close, they had discussions about Andromeda as they sat in the room Jaal had claimed as his own. Scott was avidly interested in Angaran culture – he wanted to learn Selesh, wanted to know about their technology, their holidays and traditions, wanted to know about the war effort and how it had began. At first his attempts at knowing Jaal were rebutted, but in time he gained his trust. Saving the Moshae helped, refusing to kill hundreds of innocent Angara by blowing up the facility probably helped, too. He knew about Allia, about Jaal's broken heart, and then the broken heart of the family. And he knew the Angara respected forthrightness, something that Scott was not always very good at. So he planned to get Jaal alone and he ask him outright if he would be interested in pursuing something more with him.

And he did ask. And Jaal, open to a fault, expressed a similar interest in Scott, too.

It was great. They continued their chats, kept on comparing incredibly restrained and polite notes on each other's cultures (Liam had claimed the potentially dangerous territory, Scott trod the slightly trickier but sweeter line), and maintained their weekly sessions cleaning their firearms. However from then on they sat a little closer, and smiled a little more. Scott liked the press of Jaal's thigh against his – thick, strong, warm. He liked seeing him relaxed, without his _Rofjinn_ , with no gloves on his hands or eyepiece. He flirted copiously, of course, and there was reciprocation. But flirting with Jaal was different. A lot of Scott's technique fell back on double entendre and innuendo, but not knowing the physiology of the man you were flirting with made things difficult. Scott had to be plain with his emotions. Teasing banter was replaced with frank admissions of admiration which had his face heating up far quicker than it would with anything else. It was through that, however, that Scott realised he didn't really know much about the Angaran body beyond what was on the surface (and he had seen plenty of that after walking in on Jaal and Liam trading armour), and a little about their bioelectric abilities. He knew they kissed – that was what the translator had formed of whatever word Jaal had used when talking about Allia – but he didn't really know how.

In true Ryder style, Scott lay in bed for three nights pondering just how the Angara kissed – how they did anything intimate, in fact, with increasing detail and less sleep each time – before he decided to just ask. They were 'hanging out' again, sat side to side on Jaal's cot. Scott was clearing sand from all of the nooks and crannies of his pistol, the white grains of Elaaden rock collecting on a cloth he had lain down at their feet. His hands were slightly clammy – they had started to do that recently, and not only around Jaal but in the face of the wider picture that Andromeda was revealing itself to him – and they kept collecting as much sand between his fingers as they brushed off the barrel.

“Ugh,” He wiped his hand on his knee again, sand falling from his palms with a whispering sound. Beside him Jaal shifted with a laugh, and Scott felt it where their legs touched, a deep vibration as much as a wave of sound.

“You humans have too many fingers.” Jaal chuckled, and lay his Lanat over his knees, reaching out and taking the sandy hand into his. His skin was rough there, war-worn even through his gloves, and Scott spread his fingers, baring the soft skin of his palm to those long purple digits. The sand itched in the damp crevices between his fingers and his heart jumped a little, as it always did when touches like this were shared between the two of them.

“I'll have you know that I have exactly the right amount of fingers.” Scott insisted, and tried to ignore the way his voice sounded breathless, like Jaal had punched him, not taken his hand.

“If that is true, why is it no other species has five as you do?” Jaal replied, raising a mobile ridge over one eye, where an eyebrow would have been if he had one. “Except for Asari, that is.” He carefully brushed the sand out from between Scott's fingers, the expression on his face making it appear as doing so was the most normal and least intimate thing one could do. The rasp of the sand itched further, but instead of drawing his hand back he pressed further into Jaal's touch. 

A hundred sexually suggestive comments flew through his mind, none of them right, none of them fitting. “Uh, best ask Lexi that one, I think.” He said instead, and now his heart was pounding, those late-night thoughts crowding his mind again. Jaal finished dusting the sand from his hand, he had a smile on his face.

“Maybe I will.” He rumbled, and Scott's hand felt cold when Jaal left it to pick up his Lanat again.

“Jaal,” Scott started, that newfound forwardness bubbling up again. His voice truly was breathless now, and he tried to swallow but almost choked on his tongue. Jaal made a sound of acknowledgement, lips smiling in earnest now and there was no way he hadn't noticed the rush of blood in Scott's face. “How do the Angara kiss?” He tried to ask it all in one big go, to make it rush out like kinetic rounds, to get it out before he took it back. But he was breathless already, and his tongue was recovering from almost being swallowed, so there was no pause whilst Jaal worked through the jumble of words. His smile grew wider straight away. Scott set his jaw in the same way he did after asking a particularly trying question of Initiative leadership, but there was no way to hide his personal interest in the question.

“What do you mean?” Jaal asked, _teasing_ , “A kiss is a kiss.”

Scott pulled his hand back from where it had been hovering in mid-air and placed it back on the disassembled barrel of his pistol. “Well, in Milky Way species 'kiss' means different things. Not all species have the right, well, required components to kiss in the way that others do so, so Krogan... actually I've never seen Krogan kiss each other, but _Turians_ they sort of... press their fringes together and touch mandibles, and then Salarian's don't kiss at all,” another disappointment Scott had in his relationship with Jolan, “and then humans, historically kisses actually spread from one culture to another so at first-”

“Salarians don't kiss?” Jaal interrupted, and Scott took a moment to stop, backtrack through the mess of words he had just blurted out, and then nod.

“They're not really ones for romance. I mean, maybe some do with other species,” Jolan certainly hadn't, “but not with each other.”

“Interesting.” Jaal had his brow brought together and his eyes squinted in that way that meant he was absorbing new information, thinking. “And human kissing, it... spreads?” Shit that made it sound contagious, like some sort of disease.

“It already spread.” Scott clarified, and in turning the conversation to kisses not given to or received by the Angara Jaal had effectively calmed his heart rate. Some clarity returned to him, his words began to make a litle more sense. “It was a European invention, different cultures expressed intimacy other ways, but with trade and international relationships and, well, mingling, it became something done all over.”

Jaal made another of his small, thoughtful noises somewhere between a grunt and a purr and Scott felt the heat in his face flaring again. “Interesting,” He repeated. “I have seen human kisses in vids. Ours are... not too different.” He smoothed his hands over the cool metal of his Lanat and Scott couldn't help but dart his eyes to them and grant himself a reprieve from staring at Jaal's face. “We have many different types of kisses, but the basic movement is the same. It is the signals that change the meaning.” He tapped his index fingers on the surface of his rifle and Scott nodded. Bioelectric pulses. It made sense, based on other Angaran social interactions and cues. Something inside of his chest sunk, and he recognised disappointment. He wouldn't really be able to feel an Angaran kiss, then. Not really, not like it was meant to be felt.

Distantly he hoped that it was soon common knowledge that Milky Way colonists wouldn't be able to tell the difference between a kiss with romantic intentions or one of familial comfort. If not, a lot of messy misunderstandings could arise.

“Ryder,” Scott looked back to Jaal's face as he heard his name. There was something different about it – his eyes, the pupils were no longer thin slits, they were wider, rounder, like they were sitting in the dark rather than in the gaze of a sunlamp. “I would very much like to kiss you.”

Scott's pulse raced then, borne out of nervousness and excitement, and he nodded. “I'd like that too,” he said.

Jaal leant in, one of his bare hands sliding up Scott's arm and to the back of his neck, leaving goosepimples in its wake and raising hairs. His eyes slid closed and Scott followed suit with some difficulty, battling with his curiosity as Jaal's firm hand pulled his head to a bow. There was a moment and then their foreheads touched and a soft noise tumbled from Jaal's lips, like a sigh and a growl. A wheeze of air left Scott, and he reached a hand out to rest on Jaal's closest thigh as if he would fall otherwise. He may have been physically incapable of feeling Jaal's bioelectric pulses, but Scott felt as if he could; as if a shock had pinged right down his spine and then out to every extremity. Jaal was close in new ways, warm and solid and smelling slightly of nutrient paste and the cleaner he was using on his rifle. His forehead was softer than Scott's, larger, too, and going up and back into the mane of folds around his head. His fingers on the back of Scott's neck had dipped into the hair there and were exploring, the sensation no doubt a new one to him. Scott ran his thumb over the thigh under his hand, a comfort and a distraction, dipping into the grooves of his leg armour and then out again in a stuttering rhythm. They sat, intoxicated by each other, Scott aware of his heart beat as much as he was aware of each minute movement Jaal made.

A husky sound reverberated in his ears and Scott felt breath on his face. He realised that, caught in the sensation of being so close to Jaal, so close to kissing him as he would, he had turned his face in without really realising. His nose now pressed against Jaal's cheek, he could smell the other's breath, could feel it coming out in hot, wet waves. With a little hesitation he raised his hand away from Jaal's thigh, held it lightly against the folds of his mane, and pressed their lips together. 

He couldn't help the whimper that left his lips, the automatic arousal twanging in his groin, the head-rush dizziness that had him hold just a bit tighter. It was obvious that Jaal had never placed his lips upon another's this way, that he could not conceive of the sensation as something pleasurable or desirable. He held himself slightly stiff and awkward, but after a second he twisted into it, puckered his lips against Scott's, and that hand in the short hairs at his nape slid up to the base of his skull. A shuddering breath hissed through Scott's nose, and he felt Jaal's laugh before he heard it, and Jaal pulled back to laugh openly into the room.

“That tickled,” he said, and Scott's eyes were open now and he could see the other's smile. Jaal rubbed at the side of his lips where Scott's breath had hit him, and Scott ducked his head, embarrassment finally winning out.

“Sorry,” He said, laughter in his voice, too. The act of kissing, he realised after the act, was quite an odd one.

“It's alright. It was... good.” Jaal said, and his smile was still there, his eyes wide, his pupils thick in the blue iris.

“Yeah?” Scott breathed.

“Yes. Was it good for you?”

Scott laughed then, a true, bubbling laugh drawn from the pit of his butterfly-infested stomach. A little kiss and they were talking about it like it was so much more; muddling their way through it like adolescents. “Yeah, yeah it was good for me.” He smiled back. The hand on his head squeezed his neck and then tugged the hair lightly, a shiver running over Scott's full body, and finally retracted. Reluctantly, Scott slipped his away from Jaal's soft mane and back to his still unclean barrel. He waved it awkwardly in the air. “Well, uh... better get back to it, yeah?” Jaal nodded in agreement, another laugh in his throat. Slowly they got back to the tasks at hand, a methodical cleaning and checking, occasional conversation, and the sounds of sand slipping to the cloth beneath them. And if they were slowed by a couple more kisses of both types, well, all that did was help familiarise them. Yes, perhaps courting an alien was weird, but that didn't mean Scott was not finding it a pleasurable experience.

**Author's Note:**

> That kiss in Jaal's old bedroom cannot be the first. It just can't. Also, I would find it very unbelievable that European-style kissing would be the same as kissing for any of the Milky Way species or the Angara, so I explored that a little. Considering the touching of heads is what was the most similar to a 'kiss' in most non-European cultures and we see Ryder and Jaal doing that after Flesh and Blood if they are going down the romance path so I reckoned it must be similar, and then the bioelectric pulses and cues came in and yep.
> 
> I'm thinking of turning this into a series, I have a lot of ideas about Scott and Jaal's first time doing anything sexual which I really want to write. Because as with this I cannot believe that the lake scene is Jaal and Ryder's first time doing anything - that's just irresponsible!! you're messing with an alien's junk please be careful!!!!
> 
> Also we need to stop calling the groove-tentacle thing on the Angara's heads as flaps. Liam did a Bad there. I suggest folds or mane. Please.


End file.
